Much of what you see as a Chip saver is the shiny shopfront stuff (“front-end” and “UX design” to use the app development jargon) in the app. But at the heart of Chip are a few clever algorithms that rely on receiving transaction data via a secure and reliable connection to your bank.
But behind the scenes, our engineering and data teams have been working round the clock to completely overhaul how Chip plugs into your bank. This has been a huge piece of work that’s kept us very busy for the past six months, and we’re very excited about what it means for our savers.
We’re now making the most of the Open Banking technology, which means your automatic saves should become practically perfect in every way. Check out all the benefits below.
What’s Open Banking? Quick explainer 🙋
Open Banking is a government backed initiative that enables you to access and use your transaction data. Data that used to be exclusively used by your bank. The government introduced this to encourage fintech innovation that'll benefit the public (e.g. Chip's auto-save technology).
It will be much easier to fully connect your bank after we make this change, you’ll be able to securely connect in just a couple of taps.
It’ll all be over in a couple of taps - no more struggling to remember multiple complicated passwords. And you’ll stay in a secure environment protected by bank-grade encryption throughout the whole process.
This new Open Banking connection gives Chip enormous potential to deeply analyse, segment and intelligently predict the perfect amount to put aside for our savers.
The data that comes with Open Banking enables us to build on and enhance the machine learning behind our auto-saves, so Chip can learn from your spending habits and intelligently adjust your automatic saves. If skip or adjust saves, Chip will learn from that and tailor your future saves.
There’s a lot of very clever technology that goes into this, but to put it simply; the longer you use Chip, the smarter Chip becomes.
All this means your automatic saves should really start hitting that sweet spot. So this spells the end of eyebrow-raising saves that are too big, or too small.
The connection between Chip and your bank can no longer be dropped by your bank without your permission (barring IT outages).
This gives you much more control over your connection and Chip, as the connection will be in our hands, rather than your banks.
Back in 2017, in the embryonic days of Open Banking, Chip pioneered the use of bank connections to calculate how much individuals can afford to save. Over the past few years we’ve analysed hundreds of millions of transactions using our bank connection software.
In 2019 we used this data to create a smart algorithm for ‘basic saves’, which allowed us to welcome savers with any UK bank to use Chip, just by snapping a picture of their card (though this came with some limitations and wasn’t tailored to savers’ spending habits).
But now…
Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Danske, First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, Marks & Spencer, Monzo, Nationwide, Natwest, RBS, Revolut, Santander, Starling, TSB, Ulster Bank, and more...
This means we’ll be able to offer thousands of more savers access to what Chip does best. Personalised saves, as well as guaranteeing to never take anyone into their overdraft.
Open Banking data will also give us the ability to create clever new ways for you to save, such as smart rules for auto-saves you can use alongside, or instead of, Chip’s classic auto-save magic.
Here’s a few ideas we’re playing with...
The possibilities are endless. Let us know if there’s any more you’d like to see us develop. Drop us a line on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or email us ay: hello@getchip.uk.
Remember your Capital is at Risk and past performance is not a reliable guide to future returns. The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you might get back less than you originally invested.
